Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzaï made a passionate plea for children throughout the world to have the right to education, as she accepted the 2013 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in Strasbourg.
Yousafzai, who was honoured for her fight to promote education for girls despite the threat of Taliban violence, said: "There is poverty, lack of freedom, fear and terrorism, but there is hope, because we are all here together united to help these children, to speak for them, to take action."
Accepting the award, Yousafzai said she is honoured to receive the prestigious Sakharov Prize and this encourages her to continue her cause.
She dedicated the award to the “unsung heroes of Pakistan and all who are fighting for basic human rights.” The young activist urged the European Parliament to look beyond Europe to those countries which are suffering where freedom of speech is enchained.
Yousafzai said it is alarming that 57 million children are deprived of education, are forced to enter marriages, are subjected to trafficking, violence, neglect, disparity, sexual violence and abuse, with no freedom and schools destroyed. Yet, she said, “There is still hope”.
She explained that there is hope because “you are all here united to help the innocent children to speak for them and to take action”.
Yousafzai said a change of ideology is also needed. The ideology of being powerful. According to the young Pakistani teenager, powerful countries should not be the ones with the greatest number of soldiers or arms but with the highest literacy rate, equality for men and women, talented skillful and educated people.
She urged European countries to look beyond Europe and to support Pakistan so that educated youth can change the shape of the country. “The fittest need to struggle for the weaker”, she said and expressed optimism that through “unity and determination, we will achieve our goals. Many children are starving for education. Children do not want an iphone, xbox, playstation or chocolates. They just want a book and a pen”, she stressed.
Concluding, she said a country`s strength should not be measured by its army, but by the number of educated people.
Welcoming Yousafzai, EP President Martin Schulz said he is “proud that our Parliament is paying homage to the immense courage shown by a heroine, a survivor, a 16 year-old child, who defied fanaticism in order to defend her right to go to school".
"You have reminded us of a fundamental truth: giving people access to knowledge is the best investment a society can make in the fight against intolerance, isolation, violence and poverty", he added.
The Sakharov Prize is about tremendous courage and exceptional commitment for freedom of thought. Like other laureates of the Prize, Malala Yousafzai shows these qualities at an exceptional very young age, remarked Schulz.
He said Yousafzai has taught all a lot and “we will learn much more from you. At 16, you are a global symbol of resistance to fanaticism”.
Schulz praised Yousafzai’s family and her father for letting her free, encouraging her to write blogs and protest against fanatic Taliban preventing girls to go to school”.
The EP president said it is a disgrace that today 125 million children and teenagers – three quarters are girls- are denied access to education. More than 28.5 million cannot go to school because they live in areas ravaged by war.
“Education should not be a privilege but a fundamental right for all”, he added.
Malala Yousafzai’s commitment, he added, “reminds us that giving access to education and knowledge is the best investment a society can make in the fight against intolerance, isolation, violence and poverty.”
Without schooling there is no hope for a better future. Without schooling there is no emancipation. Without schooling there is no freedom of thought, the EP President added.
On this special occasion which happily coincides with the World Children’s Day, said Schulz, “it is our duty and responsibility, as Members of the European Parliament, to ensure that access to high quality education is not a privilege, but a fundamental human right. This fundamental right must be defended and made available to any child, boy or girl, throughout the world as the European Manifesto issued today urges us to do."
Twenty-two former Sakharov Prize laureates were present in the plenary room for the award ceremony, as the European Parliament celebrates this week the 25th anniversary of the Prize for freedom of thought and all former laureates were invited to attend a series of debates and events in Strasbourg.
"Our thoughts go out to the other winners who are still deprived of their freedom, and to the winners who have left us, and our applause is for them as well. We have not forgotten them, or their struggles", said President Schulz.
